stly detained. But a prison where men are
confined indefinitely without trial and at a king's arbitrary pleasure
is none the less intolerable, however its horrors be mitigated.
Prisoners were sometimes forgotten, and letters are extant from
Louvois and other ministers, asking the governor to report how many
years certain prisoners had been detained, and if he remembered what
they were charged with. In Louis XIV.'s reign 2228 persons were
incarcerated there; in Louis XV.'s, 2567. From the accession of Louis
XVI. to the destruction of the prison the number had fallen to 289.
Seven were found there when the fortress was captured, the remainder
having been transferred to Vincennes and other prisons by the governor
who had some fears of treachery within but none of danger from
without. Four were accused of forgery, two insane; one, the Count of
Solages, accused of a monstrous crime, was detained there to spare the
feelings of his family. So unexpected was the attack, that although
well furnished with means of defence, the governor had less than
twenty-four hours' provisions in hand when the assault began.

[Footnote 165: Only five francs were allowed for a bourgeois; a man of
letters was granted ten; a Marshal of France obtained the maximum.]

The Bastille, some time before its fall, was already under sentence of
demolition, and various schemes for its disposal were before the
court. One project was to destroy seven of the towers, leaving the
eighth standing in a dilapidated state. On the site of the seven, a
pedestal formed of chains and bolts from the dungeons and gates was to
bear a statue of Louis XVI. in the attitude of a liberator, pointing
with outstretched hand towards the remaining tower in ruins. But Louis
XVI. was always too late, and the Place de la Bastille, with its
column raised to those who fell in the Revolution of July, 1830, now
recalls the second and final triumph of the people over the Bourbon
kings. Some stones of the Bastille were, however, "in order that they
might be trodden under foot by the people for ever," built into the
new Pont Louis Seize, subsequently called Pont de la Revolution and
now known as Pont de la Concorde; others were sold to speculators and
were retailed at prices so high that people complained that Bastille
stones were as dear as the best butcher's meat. Models of the
Bastille, dominoes, inkstands, boxes and toys of all kinds were made
of the material and had a ready sale all ov